First Official Look At Lucy Lawless in ‘Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’

The summer movie season flew by fast and for comic book movie fans, that means 2014′s slate of superhero blockbusters are all already out. Now it’s time to look forward to the fall television season, beginning with Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC in just four weeks, and on the DC Comics side, Arrow returns and The Flash begins in early October, both on The CW.

For Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a series that shares the same cinematic space as the big budget films by Marvel Studios, the season 1 finale left its core cast of characters in some interesting places with a lot of questions to be answered. In a self-described effort by the producers to make the series “more Marvel,” fans can expect to see a lot more characters and references directly from Marvel Comics.

Just last week for instance, Adrianne Palicki was cast as Mockingbird, a high profile character from the comics who could have a much larger role down the road in the franchise, potentially even having a relationship with on one of The Avengers. We also got our first look at Brian Patrick Wade as Absorbing Man for the season 2 premiere. But these two aren’t the only new additions to AoS’s season 2 roster.

Also joining the season 2 cast of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is Lucy Lawless (Xena) as SHIELD officer Isabelle Hartley, a character who will also make her debut in the season 2 premiere. Like the core roster of characters of the series, Hartley is another original creation so we don’t know anything about her outside of her previously working for SHIELD. Perhaps she’s stepping up to fill the void left by Bill Paxton’s John Garrett – a veteran SHIELD agent. Marvel just debuted the first official (but not very high-res or well-lit) photo of Hartley from the premiere – click to enlarge:

Lucy Lawless as Agent Isabelle Hartley

Lawless, who broke out in the hit ’90s series Xena is a TV all-star, having key roles in multiple geek-friendly series including Battlestar Galactica and Spartacus, and notable appearances in Flight of the Conchords and Parks and Recreation.

Other new cast additions for season 2 include Kyle MacLachlan as Skye’s dad, Reed Diamond (Dollhouse) as Hydra agent Daniel Whitehall, Nick Blood (The Bletchley Circle) as Lance Hunter, Simon Kassianides (Quantum of Solace) in an unspecified major role as the character Bakshi, Henry Simmons (NYPD Blue) as Alphonso “Mack” Mackenzie.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 2 premieres on Wednesday, September 23, 2014 on ABC.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron releases on May 1, 2015, Ant-Man on July 17, 2015, Captain America 3 on May 6 2016, and unannounced films for July 8 2016 and May 5 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy 2 on July 28 2017, November 3 2017, May 4 2018, July 6 2018, November 2 2018 and May 3 2019.

A prime Lucy Lawless not being cast as Wonder Woman. Perhaps the biggest missed opportunity in comic book movies ever. She would’ve reached Christopher Reeve’s level of iconic status with that role for sure.

Have to say even now would still prefer her to Gal. Hopefully she’ll be cast as Hippolyta if that damn solo Wonder Woman movie ever gets made.

I thought the original casting notice stated that the character would have major sex appeal? They seem to have down-played Lucy Lawless’ natural good looks and given her a soccer mom look.

Then again, if she’s in mourning because her girlfriend was shot dead by a Hydra traitor and she’s discovered that she has spent her entire career working with secret Hydra agents, I’m guessing she’s not going to be too bothered about her make-up and hair. I hope Isabelle Hartley is an interesting character and a great, recurring addition to the SHIELD team.

As for Wonder Woman, I believe that Lucy Lawless was approached to play Wonder Woman in the first couple of years of success of “Xena: Warrior Princess”, but they were basically offering her a role which was just Xena but with a different name (i.e. the script/story-line at that time was very close to Xena) and she wanted to enjoy what little time she had off from making Xena to spend with her young daughter and family.

Since Lucy Lawless was one of about 500 reasons why I loved Battlestar Galactica, I’m excited about her being on S.H.I.E.L.D.
Once SHIELD became more serialized, the show grew in quality exponentially. This is a very good move for the show, and I find myself excited about season 2. Something I didn’t expect after the mediocre to poor first half of season 1.
The show felt as if it began to realize all the things it did wrong, and began to fix them in a fast but smooth way. The addition of Lawless (just like the addition of Bill Paxton), seems like another step in the right direction.
But I wouldn’t trust her…The ‘Three’s’ are a smart but sneaky bunch.